


Irrelevant

by chancellorxofxtrash (PhoebeMurdivine)



Series: Daemons & Naritaverse [8]
Category: Baccano!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Alternate Universe - His Dark Materials Fusion, Gen, baccanoweek, naritaverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-02
Updated: 2016-09-02
Packaged: 2018-08-12 16:09:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7940815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhoebeMurdivine/pseuds/chancellorxofxtrash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Melvi knew from the beginning, that he was not supposed to have a daemon, and never will have one either.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Irrelevant

**Author's Note:**

> Baccanoweek Day 7: Coincidence
> 
> Quick summary of Daemon AU's and this one in particular:
> 
> \- Every human being has a daemon, from their birth. They are a part of their soul, in a form of an animal, basically a representation of their souls. They are not always follow stereotypes associated with their animals however, there are many different interpretations.  
> \- When they are kids, their daemons often change forms, they are not settled. It's during their teenage years they finally "settle" into their final form, but it changes for everyone.  
> \- Most of the time the daemon's gender is different than the human's.  
> \- Touching someone's daemon is taboo. Especially without consent. It can happen when people are especially close to each other, like lovers, but never publicly. Touching someone's daemon without consent or warning is at the very least uncomfortable, but it can be outright painful.  
> \- Hurting the daemon hurts the human, and vice versa.  
> \- If the daemon dies, the human dies too.  
> \- The daemons of other supernatural beings are explained in later stories.  
> \- Daemons' talk is written in italics  
> \- Vampires' daemons are just as varied as the vampires themselves.  
> \- Homunculi depend a lot on how they were created

Melvi knew from the beginning, that he was not supposed to have a daemon, and never will have one either. It was normal. He wasn’t a person, he wasn’t human. Only humans had daemons, it was that simple. He was to be just a vessel for thoughts and memories. Vessels don’t need daemons.

It was really simple, and not even worthy of further thoughts. Most people, who just met him briefly, often didn’t even notice he didn’t have a daemon, after all he could have had a tiny daemon out of sight. Or a bird daemon further away. It’s only when people had to spend more time with him when they started to grow more and more uneasy with his presence.

He’d know the signs. Their eyes were flicker around more, at first trying to hide it, later almost desperately looking for something, some kind of a movement around Melvi. A constant presence. A proof that they were speaking to a human being.

They weren’t, of course.

And Melvi didn’t find it a bother. That wasn’t his purpose, and he really enjoyed watching them squirm. The way the humans looked uncomfortable when they had to be close to Melvi for longer periods of time. It was, quite frankly, amusing.

It was how things were supposed to be, and would be like this, forever. Melvi knew. He knew Szilard Quates had a daemon, a scorpion, but that was irrelevant. He was to receive Szilard’s knowledge and memories. Not his “soul.” It didn’t matter.

At least, this was what Melvi thought until he had heard about Ennis’ daemon.

It was unthinkable. It made no sense. She was created the same way he was, why… why was she...

Why was she different?

He wanted to know.

He _had_ to know.

-

Taking Ennis as a hostage served a strategic purpose nothing else. He had to apply pressure to Firo, and he seemed to treasure Ennis, so she was the best available option. He could have taken Czeslaw, but his Master had forbade him of doing so (apparently he had different plans for the boy, so Melvi did not ask), and besides, it was obvious how much more attached the camorrista was to Ennis than to the immortal boy. It was just one of those things that were obvious. No contest.

Sure, they tried for others too, but Melvi always knew who will be the one giving the most pressure.

And that was Ennis. Nice and simple.

Not to mention, he found out during his research that Ennis had devoured someone before, probably the daemon is a result of that. Which is an interesting result, and also gives the thought that Melvi would acquire one after devouring… well. Either Firo Prochainezo, or anyone with Szilard’s knowledge.

His heart skipped a few beats at the thought, even he had to admit it.

-

He tried to not think about the hiveminds.

The hiveminds were different. They occupied a human’s body, and they retained their daemons, and it was impossible to tell whether the hivemind could suppress the daemon, or maybe even the daemons themselves were ignorant to the hivemind’s presence. Melvi could have asked, but didn’t - why bother? It is definitely part of Szilard’s research, so once he gets what he wants (and why wouldn’t Melvi get what he wants, he was a Dormentaire even if by just name. Names are very important), he will be able to know.

But he tried to ignore how Hilton’s vessels were followed by birds from a reasonable distance, or how there were always spiders around Sham’s vessels.

Not noticeable. Always acting like animals, and the birds staying outside, not too obviously there. The spiders always hidden, not to be swapped accidentally.

But once you knew they were there, you started to notice them.

Coincidental. Irrelevant. Only the effect of occupying a human host.

Not worth considering.

-

Obviously the rest was just a coincidence. He had to ignore it. Anomaly. He had to ignore the man who came with the Russo boy. He knew who the man was, of course, his long hair, red eyes and sharp teeth made it obvious who he was.

And he knew he couldn’t be able to devour anyone - he was not a perfect homunculus.

So why the hell did he have a strange creature following him?

(It was a platypus, looking just as ridiculous as Christopher himself, and mostly quietly staying out of the way, tiredly looking at his human… well, homunculus partner’s antics.)

It made no sense. Absolutely no sense.

It was a coincidence. An anomaly. He had seen no other Lamia with daemons, did he?

Something must have happened.

-

He didn’t see the rest of the Lamia, and it was definitely not bothering him.

It was nothing to worry about, after all, and they were not under his supervision.

Didn’t care.

Didn’t want to know.

There was no reason to know.

-

Trying to devour Luck Gandor was, in retrospect, a stupid decision. He made a mistake at underestimating the eldest brother. He knew Firo was the closest to Luck out of the three of them, he wanted to hit where it was painful.

Having Keith’s wolf dig his teeth to his leg was not a pleasant experience though, and Luck’s fox did deep scratches to his other leg as well.

Of course, it healed almost instantly, so it didn’t matter, just his suit got ruined. Keith’s right hand was much scarier than anything those two predators could have done.

“They wouldn’t have touched you, if you had a daemon” Felix shrugged outside, his ferret on his shoulder. “That ain’t pleasant, not like you’d know that.”

“We did not hire you to make comments that you think that are smart.”

“Ha! But ya didn’t hire me to keep my mouth shut either.”

The albino ferret was following Melvi with her eyes, and Melvi had a feeling she was out especially to try to annoy Melvi. After all, the ferret was usually under Felix’s coats, out of sight, but not when around Melvi.

Trying to make him constantly think about what he didn’t have, probably.

Well, she could try to make Melvi uncomfortable.

That was not something he cared about.

-

Still…

Still, he couldn’t help himself when he went to visit Ennis. He couldn’t help being distracted by the small goldfinch who was put in a cage.

Ennis talked about how he felt changed after devouring that alchemist, and Melvi just knelt down in front of the cage, and… and he felt his throat tightening, that if, maybe, just maybe…

Then he felt a sharp pain, and yanked his hand back as the small bird bit him, puffing his feathers.

Melvi stood up, the blood shooting back to his finger, a disdainful look on his face.

“Well. You still had to kill someone to have a soul.”

“I don’t think that’s simple” Ennis said. “Yes, I felt it… starting to happen, after I devoured that alchemist. But Maverick didn’t materialize until years later. And Christopher can’t even devour anyone, and he still has Chaz now.”

-

Melvi refused to think about it as he fixed his suit.

Or at least, tried to.

He thought of Ennis and her goldfinch, Christopher and his platypus. The hiveminds too, but they seemed different, it might have been an inherent design for them. They were created to act more human, maybe the secondary daemons were a side effect of that.

Coincidental side-effect.

He thought of Ennis - and her being around Firo, Czeslaw and that camorra family.

He remembered Christopher walking in with the Russo boy.

It couldn’t be based on human relationships and forming attachements. It’d make no sense. Definitely not.

Right. Ennis’ daemon might have taken some time to materialize, but it was surely solely because of her devouring the alchemist.

Christopher was just a coincidence, that’s all.

Which means, Melvi will have to be prepared that it might happen to him, when he gets what he wants.

Can’t focus on that now - he’ll have to go now and deal the cards, literally and figuratively as well.

He was smiling, though - and he couldn’t stop wondering either.

Wondering what form would his daemon take...

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! No new named daemons, but we found out some new daemon forms:
> 
> Luck Gandor's daemon: fox, name unknown (yet)  
> Christopher Shouldered's daemon: platypus, Chaz
> 
> So this is the end of Baccanoweek for me! Thank you for all the kind words, and thanks for everyone who read these!


End file.
